BBC Classical Music Magazine

That’s entertainment!
September 2024

Were Rodgers & Hammerstein the Puccini of the mid-20th century? If so, where do operas end and musicals begin? James Inverne explores the classical origins of today’s musicals…

Jake Heggie, one of today’s most successful opera composers, grew up an avid musical theatre fan, and his eye-to-the-commercial choice of operatic subjects would seem a natural for any Broadway writer – Moby-Dick, Dead Man Walking, The End of the Affair.